Daryna Onyshko is a Ukrainian civic leader with a decade of hands-on experience advancing global democratic engagement. She launched YDN in 2024 under the auspices of the Community of Democracies to ensure that, in a time of democratic backsliding, young people everywhere have the opportunities, skills, and global connections to become leaders of democratic change. Today, YDN reaches more than 3,000 young leaders across 80+ countries through leadership development, mentorship, policy engagement, and international collaboration, inspiring a new generation to take action in their communities.

Emmanuel Kwarko Yeboah is Director of Programs and Research and a founding Board Member of the YDN Foundation. He is a doctoral student in International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

A researcher and policy advocate specialising in democratic resilience, political transitions, and foreign influence in Africa, Emmanuel previously led the CDD-Ghana International Desk and the WADEMOS Sahel and Political Transitions Initiative. He has engaged the ECOWAS Commission, the African Union and other international institutions on democratic governance and conducted direct advocacy missions to junta-led governments in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. He has led and supported election observation and pre-election missions across multiple countries in Africa.

He is the founder and editor of Eye on West Africa, a widely cited weekly dispatch on democracy and governance across the West African and Sahel region. He has authored and published policy briefs, analytical commentaries, and research reports with CDD-Ghana, the WADEMOS Network, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Africa, the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, the University of Nottingham, the University of Ottawa, and the Community of Democracies, Warsaw. He served as a Residency Fellow at the Permanent Secretariat of the Community of Democracies in Warsaw in 2026.

Emmanuel holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs and Diplomacy from the University of Ghana.

Tinatin Oboladze is a human rights lawyer trained in both civil law and common law (US) systems. She serves as a Director for International Affairs and Strategic Communications at the Youth Democracy Network (YDN), having previously served on the YDN Board of Advisors and, before that, on the Advisory Board of the Community of Democracies' CoDYouthLeads program, comprising young democracy champions from around the world.

For years, Tinatin represented Georgia in international law disputes before international courts and tribunals, including the European Court of Human Rights. She served as a member of the State Commission on Youth Policy and Action Plan at the Parliament of Georgia, led the campaign that enshrined youth rights as a priority in the Constitution of Georgia, contributed to the first youth policy adopted by the Parliament of Georgia, and served as an expert drafting national youth laws for the Parliament.

Tinatin holds an LL.B. from Tbilisi State University and an LL.M. from Fordham Law School, where she studied as a William Michael Treanor Scholar and founded and led the Fordham International Law Association (FILA) in New York. She has received multiple recognitions for her work and continues to advise on a wide range of human rights, policy, and international law matters.

Tinatin is based in New York, USA, and oversees the YDN's US and Asia regions.